Sunday Scribbles: Another Look at Numbers

So I said I would be up front and honest about numbers. When I first reported in December, I said that I was doing well. Now, I am doing even better.

My numbers in December were:
A Little Harmless Submission: 3602
Infatuation: 1659

Now in about the same amount of time, I did another one-two punch.

A Little Harmless Fascination: 3856
Possession: 2168

There has been a dip in sales at Kindle, not sure why, but WOW I made about $7500 on B and N in one month. Also, my showing on ARE has been low because they refused to announce my books at new or feature them. It irritated me, but it is THEIR site. And, I understand with one of them and might have to repackage the cover because of it. Still thinking that one over.

Now, a couple of things to consider. The HUGE swing of sales at Kindle came after an ad in RT. I have one coming out in July for my military harmless books so we will see if that changes anything. I am a pretty steady release schedule set up, no more breaks. Also, remember on B and N, A Little Harmless Submission and Callum weren't on there most of May, so they are now adding to the daily total. All of the Harmless books (as of the writing of this blog) are under 10K are the moment on Amazon and B and N. A Little Harmless Sex has already sold over 50K in digital copies as of my last statement so to have it hitting at 6K in rankings on Amazon is cool by me. My paychecks from those books, along with the rest of my books at that publisher, usually range between 5-7K monthly.

My feelings on KDP are kind of mixed. I think I am going to go for sales, dropping the price of the previous book, rather than go for KDP. I have a HUGE audience at B and N and I value them. Pulling my books from there is not a good thing, and the sales just did not outweigh the irritation of my readers. For people who have a large audience mainly at Amazon or possibly new authors trying to gain some foothold, I think it is a good thing. For me, not so much and I am going to shy away from it for awhile.

I will report in after I release Surrender, the third of the back to back to back Harmless releases. This is the first time I have had this many releases in this short of time for my self publishing, so we shall see.

I have other plans, including two new series starting this year: Savannah Heat and By Blood. The Cursed Clan proves that I have to roll those books out slowly. The sales are good, but nothing compared to my Harmless books, but I always have to remind myself, I did not have this happen over night. ALH Sex first released in 2004 as a novella, and it has been a long road.

Other things down the road is a bunch of rereleases. I am going to be rolling a lot of those out in 2013 to help me over the FINAL MOVE. That will happen in the fall of 2013 and there will be a lot of work to get ready for it. So, I am going to be filtering newly packaged covers along with new editing, and probably some bundles. This will keep me from going crazy trying to write a bunch of new stuff, edit and release, all while dealing with the massive mountain of red tape involved in hubby retiring from the Air Force.

I am still not a HUGE seller like people like Marie Force  and I definitely pull in the dollars that Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow do, but I think I am proof that you can more into self-publishing and sustain an already hearty audience and grow. I think by the end of 2012, I will have a nice bit of self-pub released and I will be outdoing all my epublisher royalty checks.

I am also given more freedom to plan. At this point, if I had stayed with my publisher, I MIGHT have had ALH Submission released, that's it. And, I am taking advantage of my ability to write fast and start rolling out more books. I have to be careful not to overdo myself because of the blood pressure issue, but I am enjoying this and can't wait to see what will happen with Surrender.

Guest Author and Giveaway: TJ Michaels

Hey all *tj waving madly*! How is everyone doing? Hopefully well. If any of you are Facebook junkies, like me, you may know that I was recently in Austria for the day job while sick as a dog. If I don't see another bottle of NyQuil for the next ten years, it will be too soon! Gah!

I'm SO looking forward to the Authors After Dark readers convention in New Orleans. I can't believe it's only 4 months away! If you're going, be sure and let me know if this blog post so we can try and get together in NOLA! I'm running a contest centered around the predicted Zombie Apocalypse from now until AAD in August. I'm giving away a book every week, plus grand prize winners will be announced at AAD - Four premium gift baskets from the ZART authors, and One paid registration to AAD Savannah next year!

Now on to more the cool stuff - NEW RELEASES! The inspiration for this book is different than my usual stories. Usually something at the day job or something I've seen while traveling inspires a story. But this one, Silk Road, is a bit different.

I was watching Discovery one day and a documentary came on about lost books of the bible. My brain said, "Huh...there are LOST books? Never heard anything about that when I was growing up." And that program drew me right in and held me captive. After that I picked one of those lost books, did a crap-ton of research, invented some mythology to go along with the results of that research and began the first book in the Seals of Destiny series, Silk Road.

Blurb:

Every rogue longs for a second chance, right? Wrong. Larien, former angel of The Host is not looking for redemption. What he needs hasn’t been seen in millennia but he’ll search the ends of the Earth to find it - from hills of San Francisco all the way to…the Silk Road.

Prologue

Silk Road

Coming June 2012

Catalog Date: July 2, 1887

Logged by: Dr. C. Wilhelm Humann

Find: Torn page of document found during excavation of the ancient ruins of Hierapolis, near Denizli Province, now modern day Turkey

Age: Estimate - 200 BC

Origin: Unclear

Material: Ink of unknown substance written on parchment

Language: Ancient Greek

Status: Unverifiable

Theory: Believed to be a hoax or part of a written play, perhaps to be performed by an artist or storyteller in the amphitheater located in the middle of the city. Given the Hellenistic origins of this site and the belief by the ancients that the city was founded by the god, Apollo, it is unlikely, given the belief in the Greek pantheon of that time, that anyone other than a storyteller would write of angelic beings.

Translation:

A single, jagged tear in the fabric that makes a family can destroy it forever. We felt immeasurable loss as those who have been a part of us since their very creation were ripped away. Left behind is a hole in the landscape of our community, a chasm of emptiness that will never be filled.

Like having an arm twisted from the socket without the luxury of a blade, their severing was agonizing and unspeakably ugly, leaving the exposed tatters of our emotions every bit as raw.

We felt the longing of those who wished to stay just as we’d felt their joys, triumphs and sadness through the ages. It assaulted our senses, even as we were driven to obey, driven to force them out of the only realm they’d ever known.

Beaten bloody, battered thoroughly, bruised in mind, body and spirit; we felt the sting of our own betrayal. We’d turned on them. Abandoned them. The pain they felt as they were separated from us reverberated from their minds to ours like the ripples of sound and space after striking a large gong. It was soul-deep as they looked us in the eye while we landed blow after blow.

“Don’t do this to us,” they cried. “Don’t make us leave you. We’ll die. Worse, we’I’ll die alone.”

Yet we had no choice. The smallest seed of rebellion could not be allowed to root or sprout, let alone grow. Could not be allowed to corrupt order.

Even as they fought back, tried to keep what had always been theirs, it wasn’t enough. They knew it. We knew it. We pushed them beyond the boundary of the heavens, beat them back until they were beyond the stars. Even my fellow Watchers, those who inhabit the skies and those who serve on the earth, observed with awe the utter destruction that we, the Host, delivered without quarter.

Their wings were nothing more than bloodied stumps as we tore away the last symbol of their former status. Bodies, once as bright as the stars, dimmed as they fell.

None would ever be punished as these, thrown down so that the impact shook the earth itself.

Some landed on jagged mountain peaks. Some crashed in the seas with such force it was as if they met solid stone rather than water. Some sprawled unmoving in snow to experience an utterly foreign sensation - bitter cold. Some met burning hot deserts where the rough sands scraped away the last of their flesh.

What small bits of their bodies that had not been damaged in the fighting were shattered, rended apart as they made contact with hard earth. And to Earth are they bound until their final judgment.

As if the judgment received weren’t enough.

They would never take to the air or rise again. Ever.

What were they to do? What were they to become now that what they had been created to serve was no long accessible? Would they mend? Of course. They were created as beings of the stars, celestial through and through, yet that which sustained them could no longer be called upon to replenish them. We are all warring angels, injury is nothing new. But for our brethren, what would normally take moments to heal would now take… Then I realize that I have no answer, having never been cut off from the Source.

We watched their expressions of disbelief harden even as their bleeding tattered bodies began to mend oh so slowly. With the mending of each wound came a new emotion.

Rage.

It affects us, their anger, but we must remain true to our purpose. We must remain connected. The need, the determination, to hold on to what is left of our family after we wrought such devastation helps keep us strong.

So we turn our backs knowing that we, that I, committed such fierce and lasting judgment, such violence against my own…the agony of it will forever reverberate through my soul.

There is no need to wonder if any who were to be cast out remained. We have been thorough. It is done. Something that none have witnessed before is finished.

The Fall.

As I sit and write this, it occurs to me that it is no wonder my brethren continue to despise man. A creature created of the dust of the ground had been given dominion over all the earth, a creature they had been expected to bow before. In punishment were they cast down to live among those very beings they saw as beneath their notice.

I never thought anything could cause me to question my purpose, my existence. My masters. Yet doubt lingers as to whether what we have done is…right. But it is a doubt I will never share with another lest I suffer the same fate.

[illegible writing – smudged ink here]…

We miss them as they were and we will always love them deeply for the rest of our days. Yet we cannot undo their rebellion, nor condone what they have become.

~Larien, Principality and Angel of the Art of War, Watcher and member of the Host

I'd like to know if there are strange, uncommon or interesting stories you'd love to read, and tell me if you're going to AAD. We'll pick a random winner and let you pick any of my Nook or Kindle books you like (International), as well as ship you a ZART (Zombie Apocalypse Response Team) t-shirt (U.S. and Canada only).

Visit me on Facebook to see what's up! http://www.facebook.com/the.real.tjmichaels

TJs Website: http://www.tjmichaels.com

Sunday Scribbles: Chasing the Million Dollar Deal

There has been a lot of talk about Amanda Hocking and her 2 million dollar deal after making it big in self-publishing not to mention EL James and the 7 figure deal for her erotic trilogy. So people automatically assume that you can put out a self-pubbed book and it will garner you a deal. That is going to lead authors down a path of frustration.

The issue of self-publishing from my perspective isn't about the huge deal from NY. It is about making a living. People waiting for the big deal from a legacy publisher are worried about recognition. I gave up on that a long time ago. The only recognition I need is making my readers happy. I was very honest last year on a panel at AAD. Unless I was offered a 7 figure deal, I most likely would not take  an offer from NY. Not unless they change up their %'s which they have been unwilling to do for most authors, so I am sure they wouldn't do for me.

I am now making more per month in my self-publishing than I do with my best publisher. By almost twice as much. That is with only three releases. THREE. And one of them was out of my genre and didn't sell as well as the others. I still made fantastic money.

Making a living at writing isn't that easy. In the past few years, advances have been shrinking and shelf space along with it. Ebooks have been increasing thanks to new affordable devices and along with it, the stigma of self-publishing. I have talked to readers and the truth is they just want a good book. They don't care if it is from a legacy publisher in NY, an epublisher or self-pubbed. If it is a good book, they will read it. Before the digital revolution, getting a physical book into a store was difficult. It still is. NY authors had little to no competition with smaller press because we couldn't get our books in stores. Now, with online stores, that hurdle is gone. When you look at best seller lists they have a nice mixture of small, digital, legacy and self-pubbed.

I don't really give a damn what other authors think about me. I used to a long time ago, but once I left the sorority writing organization I was part of, I realized that it didn't matter . I care about making a living and keeping my readers happy. In less than two years, Mr. Mel is retiring from the AF. Now, he will work if he wants to, but I want to be able to give him the ability to choose what he does if he wants to work. Being military, he has had do to jobs he hated, stuck it out with bad supervisors and commanders, and now it should be his turn to choose. So, I have been working toward that. And, thanks to self-publishing, I can.

Part of what has been so great is that I know what I am going to earn. I hate waiting months, sometimes more than 6, to find out what I earned. Now I know immediately what I am earning, what I will be able to afford. Thinking that you can get into self-publishing as a get rich quick scheme is going to leave you very unhappy. If it happens, then more power to you. More than likely though, you are not going to get that offer. That is why most of us know the names Amanda Hocking and E L James. They are not that common. So, here are some tips to keep your head above water and build a readership that will allow you to make a living:

1. Do not think of yourself as an author only. If you self-publish, you are a publisher.

2. Promotion is important but don't let it take over your writing. Plan your marketing, set up your blog tours, or get someone to do it for you. Just remember that if you don't write the books, you won't make any money.

3. Have consistent releases. This means more than one a year. The one book a year idea is gone. Sure, there are people who can do it, but most of us have to have at least a few releases a year. Digital publishing moves fast and the readers are ravenous. Feed them.

4. Reach out to other indy published authors, cross promote. Hit up authors in your genre. It doesn't mean you can't promote with traditionally published authors. But, you can do things with other indy authors that you can't do with traditionally pubbed. Exchanging excerpts is one thing that I highly recommend. Just like publishers, you can put other excerpts in the back of books, and they can do that for you.

5. Have a publishing plan. It doesn't mean it has to stick. Just a plan on how many and when you can put the books out.

Those five things are important but that last one is one of the most. Have a plan. Some kind of plan. Anything. I have one that I change up based on market swings. One thing I decided to do was add another Cursed Clan book in this summer. After the free giveaway, I had a lot of email asking for the next one. I want to build on that, so I am going to release Angus this summer. I still have a plan though and you need one too.

Building a nice, healthy backlist in self-publishing is much easier than doing it with a publisher. That is an essential key to being successful. Thankfully, you don't have to compete with other authors for spots when you are your own publisher. It allows you to have creative freedom and financial security which in my book is the best of both worlds.

Sunday Scribbles: The Benefit of Free Books

I believe in free books. As a promo tool, I have used it almost from the beginning of my career. There were a couple of reasons I did that. One, no one knew who I was. I had to let readers get to know me, and what better way than with one of my books. Two, it was cheaper than other promos, like ads and mailing stuff. I was on a tight budget.

I am always amazed when I hear other authors say they don't like giving away books. Are there some readers who abuse it. Yes. Just like every other free thing there is in the world. But, it also gives you a chance at gaining readers. When Samhain put ALH Sex up for free for the first two weeks of May, the sales of all my other Harmless books went through the roof. Plus, I still sold 9,000 copies of A Little Harmless Sex. I can't tell you how many free books were downloaded because Samhain has never sent those numbers to me. But based on what I know now, it must have been amazing. Either way, the Harmless series sold 18,000 copies that month. One month! So I know the free book works.

This past week I took a gamble. It wasn't easy because I am a Capricorn and we don't like taking them. We don't like to do anything spontaneous unless it is planned in some way. Yes, I know that being spontaneous isn't supposed to be planned. Cappy's just don't like that. So, when my book, Callum, was doing exactly what I expected, I knew I needed to do something. I am very good at knowing what a book will do--at least one of my books. I knew that it would not sell like a Harmless book and it is a new subgenre for me, and NOT erotic. I had a few reservations about putting it out for free. Because I am self-published, I cannot list it for a free promo on Barnes and Noble. While other people do not sell that well there, I do decently. Yes, I could have gotten there free other ways, but that would leave me without earnings off a book I just released. I am just not willing to do that. At the time of writing this blog, Barnes and Noble still has not addressed this issue other than whining that Amazon is trying to corner the market. They are, that is part of business. If you want to compete, pull your head out of your ass and pay attention.
But I digress as usual lol. Okay, so to get it free on a major place, Amazon, I had to accept the terms of KDP SELECT. The book has to be on there exclusively for 90 days. During that time I have FIVE days I can put it up for free. I also have it placed in the borrowing library where my books available to anyone with a prime membership and a kindle device. The reader has the ability to borrow one book a month. Then, based on the borrows and number of books in the programs, I get a % of the fund they set aside. So, it made it into the top 10 of Contemporary Romance for free, top 20 for Free Romance and the top 30 for overall on Amazon's free list. And, the whopping total of downloads is:

16,708

That's right. As of right now, almost 17,000 people in the US downloaded it. The other countries added another 2K on top of that. Now, those are free, and many of the people might never read it, because it is free, and they might hate it. But the proof is in the pudding. I have almost made as many sales the last two days that I did in the whole month it was on sale with Amazon. I have finally cracked the top 2000 in sales rankings.

UPDATE: I have cracked 1000 on the sales ranking and have now sold more than twice as many copies in three days of sales since it went off sale for free, than I did the entire first month of sales. I think that says it was a good idea.

This is not going to last. I know that. But the reviews have been good and most people seemed to be enjoying this. It also gives me the ability to release Angus this summer because I have already gotten people emailing me about that book. 

I have read or listened to people complaining that they put out a self-pub book and OMG it didn't make me a million bucks. First of all, no book is going to make that for you right off the bat. It is time to move back into reality land. Secondly, if you are a published author moving into self-publishing, you have to understand that while you might not have gotten a lot of promotion from your publisher, you did have the value of the name they have built. They get buzz as a publisher overall. Since you are now the publisher, you have to create that yourself. If you don't, they are not going to automatically follow you. It will for some people. Don't take that chance. 

Now, I am back to writing now and will be hanging out in both Alaska and Hawaii over the next couple of weeks. I am going to be doing some different promos with pricing, etc with my releases in late Spring and I will let you know how those go.

An Explanation about Free Reads, Clan and Upcoming Releases

I figured that I should explain a couple things that have been going on because I have been getting emails.

First, I want to talk about free reads.
I do not have the ability to put something for free on the Nook. Barnes and Noble does not extend that privilege to self-published authors. That is why I enrolled into KDP select to be able to do it on Amazon. I do appreciate that I have a lot of Nook readers, but as I said, Barnes and Noble doesn't allow us to do that.  I did a free read with All Romance Ebooks in December for A Little Harmless Submission and I would be happy to run a promotion at different places.  If readers send them emails complaining they do not offer this to people, they might think about doing it. Right now, they don't seem open to the idea so my hands are tied. The only way I could get it free were to have it put up there permanently for free. While that might be nice, I need to make a living and I cannot do that with my books for an indefinite amount of time.

The Cursed Clan and other books. 
When I chose to step into self-publishing, I knew that I would have to make decisions like a publisher. The last few years I looked at my writing that way. So, to earn money, I have to make sure that my earnings are balanced.  I love writing my Clan books, but I also have to earn a living. The truth is, Callum has sold as much as I thought it would. I was HOPING for more, but I know my writing and the market pretty well. It is one of the reasons I put it up for free. On average, most people  have been loving the book, so I have a feeling the more people who read it, the more who will buy the second one. Unlike a publisher, I will not end a series in the middle. It might just take longer to get the books out. Now, as a reader, if you love the series, make sure you let people know. Tell your friends and family about the series. Post reviews at Goodreads and Amazon and if you have a blog or facebook page, be sure to post stuff there. Word of mouth is HUGE and sometimes it can take a book from expected sales to OMG sales.

Scheduling for my upcoming releases is off the grid. 
What do I mean by that? I will not have specific dates until close to the release. I am doing this for a couple of reasons. One being that if I get sick again or something else personal comes into play, I won't feel that I have to get it done and risk my health and sanity. I am very goal oriented and once I set something in motion, it drives me crazy if I don't get it done. Secondly, I can also change the schedule up a bit to satisfy readers. If Clan takes off, I can slip books into the schedule, do some shuffling. If my Victorian vamp series By Blood explodes, I can release more than one a year. The release times are being stripped from the website so there will be no confusion. As I get further ahead where I finish books a few months before it releases, I will be able to put up release dates again.

I hope that explains a few things to readers. :) Now I get to return to Hawaii and Deke and his Possession.

Guest Post: Lissa Matthews

A few months ago, I decided to self publish Masked, a short male/male story. It was originally a free read on my website and through one of my publishers. I took it, expanded it, got a cover for it and put it up for sale at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romance eBooks, and a few other places. It didn't too bad, but it didn't do great. I wasn't disappointed though. Readers kept and still keep asking for more.

I chose to start out self publishing with something I didn't normally write for a few reasons.

One, I had the story and could work on it and get it up in a relatively short period of time.

Two, I wanted to try my hand at the male/male genre with a bit of a larger audience because it is one that I want to write more for.

Three, I needed the experience and to get some of the process down because I knew I would be exploring more self publishing in the future.

This little series became a bestseller at All Romance eBooks within a few days of release. Talk about thrilled!

See, writing is my job. I love it. I get frustrated by it. I get even more frustrated by publishers and their processes. There are ups and downs just like in any job and you kind of learn to go with the flow, but one release a year at a publisher isn't going to do me any good as an author trying to make a living. I've decided that the way to deal with this issue is, self publish AND still publish with those who've been good to me as well as perhaps trying out some new ones.

I'm not making the level of money as some of my fellow author friends are in self publishing, but success doesn't necessarily need to be measured in dollar signs. I have loyal readers, a steady income, the freedom to work from home and work for myself, and the ability to learn something new almost every day. There's freedom in self publishing that one doesn't have with a publisher, from story length and content to cover art and releasing as many or a few books as one might want to in a calendar year.

There are drawbacks as well. Most books aren't going to sell a huge number of copies. If you don't already have a built in audience that you can bring with you and build upon, the marketing and gathering of readers becomes a full time job in and of itself. Lucky for me, I still had a few readers hanging around waiting for me to release something, anything after an almost year hiatus of no book releases at all.

And yes, I do think having a built in audience from having published with a publisher or three, helps. A lot. Not everyone agrees. That's the great thing, though. There are guidelines as far as how to and how not to, but the process from beginning to end isn't going to be the same for everyone, the measuring stick for success isn't going to mean the same thing to everyone, the journey isn't going to be the same for everyone, and we do have to allow for that.

Some things remain constant. Having a good story. Finding editors. Reading up on the process and talking to others who self publish. Experimenting with tags and keywords and titles and prices and lengths. Hiring a good cover artist. Promoting and guesting and interacting with readers and other authors and industry professionals. Also, knowing what your end game is, what it is you're looking to accomplish.

I am glad I tried it and I will continue to explore it. In fact, I just self published a free read: Committed: An Erotic Valentine's Tale. I wanted to give something a little hot and naughty to my readers, something quick, something to let them know I am still, as always, thinking of them.

 I will also continue to write for my publishers. They bring something incredibly valuable to my continuing growth as an author. I definitely want my cake and I want to devour the whole thing, too!

Now, for a the shameless promo.

I had a release from Samhain Publishing in December that needs a little more press. ;)

Blurb:
One rope. Three days. And two hearts on the line.
Justin has had enough. Ella, the woman who healed his broken heart, has been cancelling on him for two months straight. Sure, she’s busy with her job, which has her traveling far and wide. But that never stopped her from sharing nights of trivia, long conversations and blazing hot sex—until now. Truth to tell, he misses their easy friendship, the way her sighs fill his ear as he fills her body.
What he can’t figure out is, what’s changed?
At work, Ella finds it easy to talk to rooms full of strangers. Once back at her lonely apartment, though, she’s back to her painfully shy self—until Justin. Their chance meeting grew over the months into a year-long affair, but she can’t shake the feeling that rejection and pain are just around the corner. Best thing to do? End it now, before their intimacy digs too deep.
Suddenly he’s at her door with a length of neon-green rope and a naughty proposition, daring her to say no. Just how good could it be? There’s only one way to find out…
Warning: The sheets are tangled, the hat is crumpled, and the jeans are worn low on the hips. The cowboy is hot, determined, and helpless in the face of bunny slippers. Readers may need extra batteries to get this one out of their system.

And coming later this month through self publishing will be the third book in my Blue Jeans and Hard Hats series, Forever In Blue Jeans. I'm still working on the finer details of the blurb, however here's a tiny little teaser and the cover for you to drool over.

One steamy night. Five years fallen between. And the sparks are still electrifying...

~lissa

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Self-Publishing-The First Six Weeks

I think the subtitle of this blog should be: Boring facts and ramblings from Mel.

Readers, this may be of little to no interest to you, but I have had a few authors ask me questions about my process and I thought I would address them here. Now when someone emails me, I will just send them to this post, lol. I will be very surprised if anyone reads it, but hey, at least I have a post to send people to if they do ask, lol.

As many of  you know, deciding to self-publish was not easy. It was a long process. I had dipped my toe in the water, putting out a short story and a few rereleases, but I had not done a full on release of a series there. As an author published with several companies, I will make close to or over 200,000 dollars this year. Yep, I know a lot of people don't realize it, but I actually make a lot of money. And now I will get bashed for saying it but oh well.


My problem was that I felt stifled by publishers. They have their own interests and they don't always correspond with mine. That's business and I understand that. I also had a problem with being told another Harmless book might not come out for close to 9-12 months and that there seemed to be no interest whatsoever in the spinoff series. That military series was a brain child born last winter, not recently. I tried working within the system for years and basically just gave up. I couldn't allow this to continue. My husband is retiring in August of 2013 from the AF and for the first time in 20 years, I want him to have the freedom to do what he wants. To do that, I needed more control.

I did not go into it lightly, nor did I think I could just slap a book together and put it out there. You need good cover art and editing. Am I saying that what I put out was perfect? Nope, but I do believe I put out a good product. I also had done a lot of reading on both sides of the fence. Konrath has good posts. Okay, he can be a bit of an ass, but he makes me laugh sometimes and he has cold hard figures. He never hides what he is doing, nor does he paint pretty pictures. I can deal with the blunt truth better than having someone blow smoke up my ass. I might write romance, but I need facts. Telling me that someday I MIGHT make it somewhere for a possible four figure deal...no thanks. Telling me what works and what doesn't, that works for me. Konrath has always done that.

People kept telling me to just start submitting to NY again. Why? So that I can possibly get 1000-5000 advance and then not get paid for another few years. (psst...I made more than that in my first full month of self-publishing, but I will talk more about that later). One thing I disagree with a few people on is that there needs to be marketing. You cannot just throw a book out there and make money. Oh, some people do, and even in my own genre. I don't like taking risks. Calculated risks, yes, but just risks? This cappy doesn't roll that way. So, my PA Brandy Walker and I launched a marketing plan for my books. We are doing it for all of them in different ways, but I do promo, I do have a newsletter and I actually do get out there online and talk to readers. (hint, if you are a romance author who "doesn't have time for readers" you might find they don't have time for you.)

For authors, remember you are not just an author anymore. You are the publisher. I cannot stress this enough. That is what self-publishing is. You are the publisher, the marketing and art department, or you hire people to do those things. Do not ever think that putting out a book yourself is easy. Is it worth it? In my opinion, yes. Ten times over. So, I launched A Little Harmless Submission on the Oct 18th. It was a success. Did I have to deal with a glitch or two? Yep. But, I think that in the end, it was worth it. And, I am so excited about my upcoming year. I get to write two paranormals I have been waiting years to do, and I get to do a lot more Harmless books, including at least two more military books and at least three full harmless books, woo hoo.  This is something that would never happen if I were working through a publisher.

So, it's been 6 weeks and here are the figures for my newly released books as of midday Dec 2 w/ combined sales from Amazon, B and N, Bookstrand and ARe:

A Little Harmless Submission
Released Oct 18th
3602 copies

Infatuation
Released Nov 14th
1659

And this is not the only thing that happened. I watched was the rise of my older Harmless books. I think I had two of the older ones on the best selling erotica books on Amazon. I won't get that payment for another six months, but all of my Samhain Harmless books were under 5K in sales ranking for several days. The only thing that bothers me is a slight dip in my sales at B and N. But, at the same time, my sales at Kindle have soared, so maybe my readers moved that? Not sure.

For Submission, 6 weeks of sales have me at just about 270 sales less than Addiction. I just got the figures for the first month of Amazon sales last month (it released in June) But that included Addiction's first month of sales AND two months of preorders from B and N and Amazon. I averaged 1.80 per book, which would have gone down to 1.35 cents per book for a book with less than 60K words. And, since this was over 60K, I would have only earned 1.65 per book offsite.  I averaged 2.60 per book this way. Even before the contract changes I would only get 2.20 per book, but even with just these sales and the new Samhain contracts, I would have lost 3400 bucks. Let that sink in. In six weeks, I would have lost 3400 bucks.

Am I the best seller? Hell, no. But one thing that I know is what I will get paid in December and January. I will know by the end of December what I will get paid in Feb. It is easier to plan that way.

I am not someone who will condemn people who decide not to self-pub. Everyone has considerations in their personal life. Mine forced me to take the scary step and go out there and do it.  I needed to have a steady living and I know I can trust myself. Honestly, after having a book from a bestselling series sit around for a year before release for no good BUSINESS reason, I don't trust anyone. For those of you considering it, I would say dip your toe in. I put out a short and a few rereleases. See if you can operate this way. I don't think you need to pick just to be self-pubbed or traditionally published. You can, but you can also try both. One thing self-pubbing gives you is a monthly paycheck and the knowledge of what that paycheck will be about 7 or more weeks in advance. It also fuels your other book sales as I have mentioned. Or it might just help you creatively. Doing something so different, like my Cursed Clan and By Blood, can fuel your creativity and that is always a good thing.
Here are a few pointers:

Start with a budget
That sounds simple, but it is imperative. You have to put out money. My upfront budget for formatting, covers and editing is 500-800 bucks. This changes depending on the size of the book, ie how many words. Know you will need that before you make any money on the book. And, if you do your own formatting or can do cover art, and I mean make it look professional, then your costs might be less. Also, depending on pics, etc, cover art might get expensive.

Understand YOU are the publisher
Marketing, editing, etc, all needs to be arranged by you. Cover art needs to be considered, when to release, etc. This is no small feat and make sure you can do this before you jump into it. I know some people have said you don't have to worry about it. But in romance, I think you do. There is a lot of competition out there, and why wouldn't you take that extra step to make more money?

Regular releases
I know that one of the reasons my first two books did so well is because I had two Harmless releases back to back. I have a shorty coming out this month, and then another Harmless book in Feb. This is my best selling series and my readers have been irritated with long waits for new books. So, I want to make them happy.

Now, I read someone make the comment that they NEEDED the recognition of other authors. I think for me, I have worked outside of the box for so long, I don't care.  Would I love for people to accept me? Sure, but I have given up on that. From the time I first got published and was told by a local RWA that I was NOT really published because I was an ebook author, to having people pretend they don't know me because they signed NY contracts, I have lost the interest in gaining acceptance. Readers like my writing, and that is all that matters.

I am not here to answer challenges from people who think self-pubbing is going to ruin publishing as we know it. Truth is, it IS going to change. Digital is now the new mass market, as it was reported that digital fell over 50% in sales this past September. I am just putting my info out there for those thinking about it. Will everyone do as well as I do? Uh, no. And some people will blow way past me. Let's be honest. Some unknown or newbie authors are kicking my ASS. But the truth is, no one tells people not to send to NY publishers because they might never make a lot of money. And people are condemned for talking about it. Again, I really don't care. I think knowledge is power and anyone who throws a fit about info being revealed is afraid of the future. Painful but true. Because people decide to go this way is no reflection on you because, and I hate to break this to you, the WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU. I think taking 18% on digital from a publisher is insane, but I don't condemn anyone for it. It's their life, their career and their decision.

I will be venturing into print soon, but I have to wait for all the Harmless books to release, and Addiction is not out until May. If there is interest I will update, because this is an ever changing business. Daily something happens. Just this week Italy and Spain were added to Kindle's list of countries.  Of course, if only three people read this, one being my mother, I think I might not spend any more time posting lol.

Here are some of the people who helped me.

Covers and all print promo: Kendra Egert is an amazing artist. I had been using another cover artist when he told me that he could no longer do covers for me. Kendra was a godsend and she is always helpful with promo ideas too. She knows the biz and her covers are amazing. Other than For Love or Honor and Sinner's Delight, Kendra has done all my self-pub covers. She is fast and professional on top of all that.

Formatting: I have known April Martinez for awhile. She and I have been around this biz for a long time, lol. She is a great cover artist but she is also a fantastic formatter too.  Always professional and very understanding when I make the gazillion mistakes that I do.

Editing: Chloe Vale is fast but she is also a very talented editor. She has a background in teaching English but she is also a READER. That is important.  Anyone with good editing skills can read through your manuscript, but a reader can tell you more. Chloe is very good at that.

All of this would not mean much without my PA Brandy Walker. Thanks to her mad organizing skills, I can promote without spending too much time on it. It gives me more writing time and more reader time.  One of the things I love is spending time with readers online. Since that is where I hung out as a reader, I consider some of them good friends. I was getting so bogged down in promotion that I didn't have time to deal with it. Having her in my camp makes it possible for me to self-publish and in fact, she has been urging me to do it for awhile now.

So, there you have it. My boring self-publishing post that hardly anyone will read, but now I have that link to send people who email me, lol.

UPDATE: Thanks for the great comments and please, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I had to spend MONTHS reading up on this stuff and still didn't get it all right. Oh, and for the few emails I got, the Harmless in Hawaii, that is my trip next month to, you guessed it, Hawaii. I am taking Brandy with me so we research the possibility of having a reader get together and doing some book research and goodie buying for the ADDICTS!